Patent GB-625237-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to stacking devices for workpieces of rectangular block shape
IPC: B65B35/58
Filed: 1947-07-07
Abstract: 625,237. Packing. JACKSON, D. R. P., and MOLINS MACHINE CO. Ltd. July 7, 1947, No. 17874. [Class 94(i)] [Also in Group XXX] A device for stacking workpieces of thin rectangular block shape so that they stand on a narrow face with their broad faces parallel with one another, comprises a pusher having an operative face inclined to the plane on which a workpiece is supported and movable endwise so that the leading edge of the pusher comes into engagement with the workpiece, and the operative face of the pusher slides beneath the workpiece after the manner of a wedge and into contact with its lower face so that it is tilted through the angle between the operative face and the supporting plane. As applied to a cigarette packing machine as described in Specification 593,866 in which filled packets are ejected from a pocket wheel 1, the packets are discharged horizontally from the wheel along a plate 3 to a position 2 in which they rest at an angle of 8 degrees to a horizontal axis parallel with the plane of the wheel 1 and are supported by two strips 37, 38. In this position the packet is in alignment with a shoot 5 inclined at about 10 degrees to the horizontal, in which the packets are to be stacked. A pusher 11 is pivotally connected to operating arms 12, 13 which are pivotally connected at their other ends to a lever 14, fulcrummed at 15 and having an extension carrying a roller 16 which is held in engagement with a cam 48 by a spring 5U. The arm 13 has a lower surface 19 which functions as a cam in relation to a roller 18 carried by an arm 20, pivotally mounted on the machine frame at 21. A cam surface 22 on the lower side of the arm 20, cooperates with a cam folowerl 23, eccentrically and pivotally mounted at 24 on the lever 14. The cam follower 23 is urged in an anticlockwise direction by a torsion spring 25, so that an arm 25<SP>1</SP> rigid with the follower, is normally brought into engagement with a stop 27 on the arm 14. In operation of the pusher, on its forward movement derived from rotation of the cam 48 to the left from the position in Fig. 2, the cam surface 22 engages the follower 23 which rotates freely clockwise until it becomes disengaged with the surface and can rotate back into engagement with the stop 27. The leading edge of the pusher which has projections 111, Fig. 4, passes through a groove formed in the strip 38, and into engagement with the packet which is thus rotated into a position parallel with the face of the pusher. On further forward movement of the pusher due to the disposition of the linkage 12, 13, 14, the pusher and packet are rotated anticlockwise so that the packet is delivered to a position 21 in which it is engaged by a latch 8 and a stop 9. The stop 9 may be replaced by a second latch (Fig. 6, not shown). In passing to the position 21 the packet displaces preceding packets further up the shoot 5. In order to maintain the roller 16 in engagement with the cam 48 at this stage of the operation the cam has a grooved section 49. On the return movement of the pusher 11, cam surface 22 rides over the follower 23 thus raising the pusher clear of the subsequent packet, which is then passing from the wheel 1 into position on the strips 37, 38. The pusher may be rendered inoperative by the de-energisation of a solenoid 41 which is thus spring-urged into engagement with a hook 44 pivotally mounted on the frame and engageable with a hook 45 rigid with the lever 14. The packets then pass to a wrapping machine (not shown) via a belt conveyer 40. A pair of arms 53 each carry a roller 52 which is raised by the passage of a packet on the conveyer 40, thereby to operate respective switches in a housing 51. The switches are wired in series with each other and with the solenoid 41. The spacing of the packets on the conveyer under normal operation of the wrapping- machine is such that only one switch at a time is closed. When the wrapping-machine stops, the packets accumulate on the conveyer and close both switches thereby energising the solenoid 41, so that pusher 11 becomes operative and packets pass to the shoot 5 instead of to the wrapping- machine. An oscillating stop 34 derives its motion through linkage 35, 36, and is effective to align each packet with the shoot 5, when the pusher 11 is operative. When the packets are passing to the wrapping- machine, the stop 34 presses each packet into engagement with a surface 39 leading to the conveyer 40. The shoot 5 may be moved lengthwise away from the pocket wheel 1 by the release of a latch (Fig. 1, not shown). In a simpler construction of the pusher operating mechanism (Fig. 8, not shown) the pusher is carried by a single arm instead of the two arms 12, 13 and its inclination to the horizontal thus remains constant. The packets thus lie in the shoot initially at an angle of about 60 degrees with the horizontal. As the packets proceed up the shoot, friction acting between their bottom edges and the floor of the shoot, causes them gradually to assume a position normal to the axis of the shoot: